The biggest issues with naming & categorizing the boards is to achieve CLEAR CUT & USEFUL TOPICAL BOUNDARIES between them that avoid confusion when people are using them, so that they make simple sense for grouping like topics.
If it is often NOT OBVIOUS where a topic should go, and takes some thinking on the posters part, then the categories will become convoluted, under-utilized, and mish-mashed (as it seems to be occuring now).
And… We want to define the sub-forums in a way that adds value and doesn’t leave any of them barren, empty and useless.
I think seperating “Off-Topic” outside of “General Discussion” is a mistake.
This entire project/website is primarily dedicated to WHONIX.
So the primary forum topics/categories should be Whonix specific, since that’s what we’re all primarily here for. AND… The names of those sub-forums should reflect that.
That’s why having “Off-Topic” as well as “General Discussion” doesn’t work well.
Those terms are both inviting the same thing and you have to stop and scratch your head about where to post something that isn’t tightly focused on the Whonix OS software.
Rhetorical as a user… “I want to talk about anonimity issues that I face when using software like Whonix, should I use “General Discussion” or “Off-Topic”?”
And it will be a natural response for many people to conclude the following answer…
“General Discussion says “general”, has a lot more activity going on, and it seems/feels like the “catch all” category like in other forums, so I guess I willl just go make my post there.”
I think “General Discussion” should encompass the concept of “Off-Topic” discussions so that it can act as an effective “catch all” category that most people will naturally gravitate to anyway.
Then, make the Whonix specific categories really reflect that more tightly, so that meaningful Whonix specific business can be reguarly done in those without a lot of general concept computer/anonimity/etc stuff.
Even putting “Whonix” in the label for Whonix specific sub-forums is important I think.
Otherwise, a general/off-topc catch all category may never catch on with people, and they’ll always feel compelled to just use the Whonix focused sub-forum for their general semi-related thoughts.
Keeping the number of sub-forums to a small number, where the categories really add value and get used a lot is key.
I do think a “Whonix Development” sub-forum would be justified and worthwhile, as it is a primary fuction of the Whonix organization and has a different audience of interest than simple end users.
I see a bit of an issue with making “bug” specific sub-forums. People will go to the forums anyway to get support for their issues. And their issues might not always be “bugs”. Like, for example, if the instructions or proceedures inside a Whonix application aren’t clear, and a person wants to make a post about that, is that really a “bug”? For confusion, overlapping, and cross-forum management sake, I’d just create a more broad topical category that any type of Whonix “bug”, “issue”, “request”, “support”, “recommendation”, “problem”, “question”, “instruction”, “help”, “how to”, etc, can go under. And, that way, people using the forums don’t have to painfully think so much about how their issue exactly matches up with sub-forum category labels.
So at this point, I’d recommend the following 5 sub-forums and labels, with short, concise, to the point descriptions…
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Whonix Support: User support for the Whonix operating system.
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Whonix Development: Hacking on the Whonix software and code.
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Whonix Website: Issues and improvements with the Whonix website.
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Whonix Organization: Building up the organization and success of the Whonix project.
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General Discussion: Any other topics of interest under the sun (within the law and common sense).
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